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My only other thought on this is that we do have one regional ally who could be a real player in this, and that is the Kurds. Syrian Kurdistan borders Iraqi Kurdistan (which also borders Iranian Kurdistan), and the Kurds are not only our allies, they are also the most effective native fighting force among Muslims. The Syrian Kurds, like their brethren, are Sunni, but not Arab, and they have been viciously suppressed by the Assad regime. Arming them and allowing them to establish their own safe haven would severely weaken Assad and the Muslim Brotherhood/al Qaeda and help stabilize the region. Any thoughts?

Israel has a few assets which are in open source, but not necessarily widely known, such as their submarine program. Israeli subs have a ballistic missile capability which can target most of Iran and all of Syria, but whose use would almost certainly touch off the powder keg.

True, as well as the land-based Jericho III missile that can reach well into Russia, which has never been used in war so far...the real problem with ballistic missiles is that without WMD warheads, they are just a safer but more expensive way of delivering a single middlin'-to-large sized bomb with somewhat less precision than an aircraft could, kind of like the Paris Gun, the V2, or Saddam's SCUDs. Scary for the population in the target area and likely to cause a fair amount of random damage and deaths, but actually pretty unlikely to hit anything critical...just nuisance weapons, without that nuke on 'em.

It's not how old you are, it's how you got here.It's been a long road and not all of it was paved.A man is but a product of his thoughts. What he thinks, he becomes. Gandhi

Originally Posted by Carol

When I judge someone's integrity one key thing I look at is - How does s/he treat people s/he doesn't agree with or does not like?
I can respect someone who I do not agree with, but I have NO respect for someone who puts others down in a public forum. That is the hallmark of someone who has no integrity, and cannot be trusted.

The current regime is actually making nice with the Kurds. Erdogan favors Kurdish autonomy, because it weakens the Turkish military and justifies further cuts, which gives him more leverage in his Islamization of the country (The Turkish Army has always been a bulwark against Islamism, hence Erdogan's jailing of most of the senior officers).

Originally Posted by DumbAss Tanker

True, as well as the land-based Jericho III missile that can reach well into Russia, which has never been used in war so far...the real problem with ballistic missiles is that without WMD warheads, they are just a safer but more expensive way of delivering a single middlin'-to-large sized bomb with somewhat less precision than an aircraft could, kind of like the Paris Gun, the V2, or Saddam's SCUDs. Scary for the population in the target area and likely to cause a fair amount of random damage and deaths, but actually pretty unlikely to hit anything critical...just nuisance weapons, without that nuke on 'em.

Very true, but if Iran is threatening a nuclear strike, the Israeli payloads may not be conventional.

And, a thermobaric warhead, which is still classified as conventional, would probably fit in a Jericho III, and that can do a tremendous amount of damage.

Bottom line, Obama is way out of his league pretending to be a Chess Master on the global stage when there is no evidence he has ever played the game. He has never won a game of checkers in his life and now is moving our naval assets around the globe pretending to know what he is doing... give me a fricken break!

This is a guy that was handing out packs of Newports and bags of weed on Chicago street corners to get people to vote (Democrat) a few years ago that has never in his life run so much as a lemon-aid stand - and now is sending carrier battle groups into harms way???

Impeach the bastard already before a lot of good men get wasted for no good reason!

So McCain and his boyfriend are going to the WH to decide what to do about Syria...I didn't realize either one of them were the Senate Majority Leader or the Speaker of the House. He wants them to go convince all those "whacko birds" to get in line and support al Qaeda against Assad.

Meanwhile we have this little gem from 2009:

Didn't Kerry just compare the other guy at that table to Hitler and Saddam?

I think we're about to see the first true bipartisan vote in the house and senate since 9/11...and it's not going to go the way the administration wants it to

So McCain and his boyfriend are going to the WH to decide what to do about Syria...I didn't realize either one of them were the Senate Majority Leader or the Speaker of the House. He wants them to go convince all those "whacko birds" to get in line and support al Qaeda against Assad.

Meanwhile we have this little gem from 2009:

Didn't Kerry just compare the other guy at that table to Hitler and Saddam?

I think we're about to see the first true bipartisan vote in the house and senate since 9/11...and it's not going to go the way the administration wants it to

What i am concered with is no matter the vote Obama and the MSM will spin it as a win for him.